DNA links two 24-year-old murder cases

SANTA FE (KRQE) - After 24 years of dead-end leads police have connected the rapes and murders of two women 60 miles apart.

A DNA match has linked the two cold cases to the same suspect although who that suspect might be remains a mystery.

Maria Padilla and Susan LaPorte died seven months and 60 miles apart, but they had several things in common. Both were pretty, in their 20s and died violent deaths at the same man's hands.

LaPorte, 23, was visiting a friend in Santa Fe in December of 1985. She went to a park to read a book and was raped and strangled there. Her body was discovered in an arroyo.

“He is definitely familiar with this area or the surrounding area," Detective Tony Trujillo with Santa Fe Police told KRQE News 13.

In 2002 police submitted evidence in this case for DNA testing. Now police know that LaPorte's killer had been in another woody area seven months earlier in Albuquerque where he raped and murdered Padilla.

The avid jogger was found by family members on the bosque trail near Tingley Beach.

“He was not particularly careful," Detective Bill Peters with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department cold-case unit said. "In our case he didn't go to any effort at all to hide the body, but he did move it out to where it wouldn't be seen easily.

"It was almost like he didn't care if the victim was found or identified because in his own mind he was thinking, 'Well, there is no relationship between me and her, so no one is ever going to find me.'”

Peters submitted DNA from the Padilla case for testing. The results matched DNA from the LaPorte case in the national database.

One big difference in the crimes is that LaPorte was tied up by the attacker.

“We know that this guy has done two," Peters said. "Whether these were the only two, that we don't know.

"There is no doubt that there could be others that we are not aware of.”

Now Peters is doing what he does best: good old-fashioned police work.

“Hopefully tomorrow we will work with police, see if they have and we are going to check with other agencies all over the state," Peters said. "We are grasping at straws.”

After 24 year the odds are long on making an arrest.

“Pretty slim, pretty slim but we won't quit until we just have no place else to go," Peters said. "We certainly won't stop.”

The description of a man that emerged after LaPorte's murder included long dark hair, a beard, blue sweater and brown boots from K-mart. Detectives determined the shoe size was 11.

Both women were beaten although Padilla much more so. Investigators believe they both put up a fight.